Climate Change Part 3 - It's Happened Before

So far we've briefly had a look at the core arguments put forward by the Alarmists - whose who support the theory of man-made global warming - and the Realists - those who, at the moment , don't. The acts of deception by the Alarmists also requires explanation on their part.

It's unanimously agreed by the scientific community that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old and during that time, it's undergone at least 12, and possibly 14 major periods of climate change. In addition to this there has been numerous minor changes to the earth's climate.

Past periods of climate change

Whilst most of this information has come from sophisticated scientific investigation involving many branches of science, some of the minor climatic changes have occurred within the life-time of man on earth and have been recorded during history.

The existence of these periods of climate change is not in doubt; what is open to conjecture are the causes.

On this, the Alarmists remain mute: they are sure that mans' industrial activity is the cause of any climate change taking place at the moment, but would have to concede that power stations and motor cars could not have caused the start of a period of climate change 5,000 years ago.

In 1991 the body of a man was found in the European Alps in the border regions of Austria and Italy. He was determined to have died about 5,000 years ago whilst crossing the Alps. Now for a person to have attempted to cross the Alps would indicate that firstly crossing the mountain range was a possibility and known to man at that time, and secondly that the feat was made possible by the absence of snow and glaciers.

Now move forward 2800 years to about 200BCE and the first recorded history of an event involving crossing the Alps took place. That was Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with an army, including elephants, to wage war on the Roman Empire. This event was clearly documented at the time and is acknowledged to have taken place.

At the time of Hannibal's efforts, the snowline of the Alps was thought to be in the region of 1,800 meters to 2,000 meters. Until recently the Alpine snowline was approximately 1,500 meters. What this means is that in modern times the level above the sea at which snow falls and lies on the ground is about 300 to 500 meters lower than when Hannibal achieved his feat. The reason for this is clear - in Hannibal's time and the centuries earlier going back to 3,000 BCE the air temperature was considerably warmer that it is today.

The world's climate has changed over the past 5,000 years. What's caused this change? Most likely the effects of Mother Nature or God.

Recent periods of climate change

Lets now move to more recent times and look at the recorded history of events that took place in London.

Between 1660 and 1820 is was quite a common occurrence for the river Thames to freeze over. Not every year perhaps, but certainly enough for people at that time to make comments. Since then the Thames has rarely been frozen, certainly never in recent memory. So the question is: what caused the warming of the air from 1820 onwards?

At the same period of time from 1660, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia was subject to stress caused by a drought that lasted 20 years from 1660. Coral has characteristics not unlike that of trees. Rings in a piece of sliced coral tell the story of events long ago. A piece of coral collected off the coast of northern Australia has recently been examined and it shows the effects of drought in the region. Lack of fresh water, and therefore the absences of nutrients, coming from the nearby rivers would affect the growth of the coral and would be noticed in examining the rings.

In the years since then the reef has made a full recovery, although it may be suffering now.

The Alarmists point to the decline in coral reefs as an example of global warming, but ignore the fact that Mother Nature has the remarkable capacity to overcome its setbacks.

Ancient movements of peoples

The history of the world has countless stories of events that happened long ago that could not happen now.

The original inhabitants of Australia came from SE Asia via a continuous land mass leading from the Malay peninsula, through Indonesia, New Guinea, and into northern Australia.

The original inhabitants of north America are thought to have entered the area about 10,000 years ago via the then ice-free Bering Straits. That feat couldn't be achieved today. Likewise the original inhabitants of the UK are thought to have come from Europe via the land mass that is now covered by the English Channel.

So in relation to these events, it would seem that global warming took place and that the world-wide sea level rose covering these routes.

And the most likely causes of these major changes are the Almighty, or Mother Nature.

That being the case in ages gone by, how could today's global warming (if indeed it's taking place) be caused by man?

This is the third part of an attempt to put some balance into the ongoing international controversy that is the theory of man-made climate change.

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